Etiology:

Osteoarthritis of the knee is a degenerative disease that affects the articular cartilage that lines the bones of the knee. These are decreasing in thickness and in its last stages, friction occurs between the 2 bones that form it, femur and tibia with movement.

Degenerative pathology in the knee causes pain more frequently on the inside, decreased mobility, swelling and decreased strength.

Diagnosis:

The diagnosis is established after a detailed clinical history along with simple radiographs of the knee, in several projections.

Treatment:

In cases where the pain affects all the compartments of the knee, after performing a thorough physical examination and analysis of the complementary tests, various treatments can be indicated:

1. Knee Infiltration: can be performed to improve symptoms, and can be: corticosteroid, hyaluronic acid, growth factors derived from platelets or other products that are currently on the market, such as stem cells.

2. Corrective osteotomies. They consist of modifying the axis of the limb to unload the compartment where there is greater osteoarthritis.

3. Unicompartmental prosthesis: prosthesis of a single compartment of the knee.

4. Total knee prosthesis. It consists of replacing the knee of the patient in its entirety with a multi-component arthroplasty, such as can be seen in a patient in Figure 1.

Illustration 1. Total knee prosthesis with its femoral, tibial and polyethylene components.